guilty. on this episode of death row stories. >> what's going on, ma'am? >> a mother's throat is slashed, and her two young sons are murdered. >> it was a bloodbath. and when a crime like this happens, someone in the house did this. no motive, no explanation. >> by god, somebody is going to pay for these two boys being murdered. >> materialistic, a temptress. >> the state will be seeking the death penalty in this case. >> there was a body on the water.

>> he was butchered and murdered. >> many people proclaim their innocence. >> this case, there are a number of things that stink. >> this man is remorseless. >> he needs to pay for it with his life. >> the electric chair flashed in front of my eyes. >> get a conviction at all costs. let the truth fall where it may. >> going to florida in two days, can't wait! >> are you going to take the camera with you? yeah, i'll take the camera with me. >> they were high school sweethearts, from lubbock, texas. they married when he was 20 and she was 18. they were the proud parents of three boys. >> what's your name? >> devon. >> do something special. do a cartwheel. >> whoa, way to go, devon. >> oh, that hurt. >> are you okay? >> yeah. >> say hi, damon. >> can you do a flip? >> no. >> the family moved to an upscale neighborhood in dallas

after darren's computer business took off. by all accounts, they were he living the charmed life. but that would all change on june 6, 1996. >> it was an average day. it was an ordinary day. you know, i remember going to sleep. >> that night, darlie fell asleep in front of the tv with her two sons devon and damon. >> 911, what is your emergency? [ screaming ] >> ma'am? >> they stabbed me. >> who did? >> darin was upstairs asleep with their infant. he said he heard darlie yell and he heard a glass break and that's when he came downstairs to find a bloodbath.

>> there was blood all over. >> the 6-year-old had two devastating wounds to his chest. they went completely through his body. he was impaled by a large knife. >> darin tried to perform cpr. >> when i blew into his mouth, the first thing that happened was air came out of his chest and blood just sprayed all over me. >> is anybody in the house besides you and the children? >> my husband. he's upstairs. oh, my god. >> darlie routier had also been injured with stab wounds to her neck and arms. >> there's blood everywhere and darlie is bleeding and she is telling darin some men came in here and did this. >> all right, listen, ma'am. you need to let the officers in the front door, okay? >> the first two officers who

arrived, i think, essentially were just shocked. one of the boys was dead, but the other was alive. damon was found near a wall, and he'd been stabbed multiple times in the back. he was barely alive, and he put down a bloody palm print to help himself up. >> when paramedics arrived, 6-year-old devon was already dead. as they tried to revive 5-year-old damon, he gasped his final breath. >> i got a phone call at 3:00 in the morning. devon and damon are dead, and darlie might be dying. and i just started screaming. >> darlie was rushed to baylor university medical in dallas and immediately taken in to surgery. the necklace she was wearing at the time of the attack was so deeply imbedded in her throat it had to be surgery removed. but it also saved her life,

stopping the knife less than two millimeters from her carotid artery. >> the surgeon who treated her he took my hand and he said she was lucky to have survived. >> when darlie awoke from anesthesia, two detectives were waiting to interview her. >> the story was an assailant was in there. she woke up and a man was over her that she started fighting w and she really wouldn't give any type of description because she said she couldn't remember. couldn't remember his face and couldn't remember anything about it. >> at the crime scene, dents detectives tried to gather pieces to a murky puzzle. >> i think the police department was entirely overwhelmed and didn't know what to do. the way they were handling evidence, the way they were trying to take pictures. they have a cam radio ra guy going through there while others were picking up evidence.

it was just absolute chaos. >> the police department had only handled one other multiple homicide in its history so they called for help from retired dallas lieutenant james crum. within minutes of his arrival he developed a theory that ruled out an intruder. >> there were numerous items, watches and rings, all laid out on the island in the kitchen and nothing was taken. darlie said the assailant dropped the knife in the utility room. it was laid on the carpet and found it was laid on the counter in the kitchen but didn't find evidence that the knife was dropped in the utility room. that's where she said she picked it up. darin hears glass break. the troubling thing about that is there is a broken wine glass there and it was on top of her bloody footprints which proves

it was placed will after she had walked around. the red flags were so startling, like this ain't making sense. when a crime like that happens in a home, experienced detective said this is someone in the house. >> as word of the murder spread, news crews descended on the home. >> she said they killed my baby. >> one neighbor said her son michael had just spent the night on tuesday. >> i'm just so glad he wasn't there. >> last night. >> after darlie was released from the hospital she and darin were with rivering to the police department where they were questioned separately. according to police, in this critical moment darlie's story shifted. instead of waking to face and intruder she claimed her son damon had woken her calling mommy, mommy. she then saw a man with a knife

and followed him in to the utility room. >> i do not think those two stories are mutually exclusive. darlie could have been awoken by a burglar and momentarily had a memory lapse or blackout or whatever and then also have some perception she was woken by the baby. >> i'm always thinking about trying to save the babies. darin and i tried to save the babies, but it was too late and the babies -- we tried. we tried and we have to live with that forever. >> 12 days after the murders, darin and darlie returned to the police department for more questioning. they walked in voluntarily. but only one would walk out. >> at approximately 10:20 p.m. this evening, investigators from the rowlett police department arrested darlie routier.

at this point we don't believe darin was involved in the murdemurde murders. >> my watched it on the 10:00 news my daughter being arrested. had no clue. no idea and looked up and there is darlie in handcuffs crying. >> darlie was charged with capital murder and taken to the dallas county jail. >> it just didn't seem real. like it couldn't be happening. i was just in a place of deep hurt. trying to survive, still in shock that my babies were gone. soaring away from home towards the promise of a better existence. but these birds are suffering. because this better place turned out to have a less reliable cell phone network, and the videos on their little bird phones kept buffering.

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two young boys involved. pretty quickly, darlie was called dallas' susan smith. >> she is not susan smith and we're going to prove this. >> concerned that darlie may be released on bail, child protective services came to take drake away from her mother. >> i said you are not going to take drake. we haven't done anything wrong and he said you think that darlie is innocent so we can't be assured you will protect him. >> i said my daughter is innocent until proven guilty, or is it changed now? >> drake was temporarily placed in a foster home and with darlie's trial approaching the media spotlight only intensified. >> sources say the routier years may have been in financial trouble and taken out policies on the boys. >> the route years tried to fight back. there were two $5,000 life insurance policies.

that was not enough to even bury the boys. >> i stand behind darlie 150%. i know she don't it. the piece s of the puzzle will come out in the trial. >> after their radio interview, darlie's mother and darin were with handed subpoenas for violating a gag order against talking about the case. to represent them, they hired legendary dallas attorney douglas moulder who agreed to take on darlie's case. >> it's an interesting case and i'm loo looking for ward to trying it. >> fee was $250,000 and the routiers scramble to make all the money they could. >> we started to sell everything in the house. our family members took children's college funds. we sold everything. >> greg davis was the lead prosecutor assigned to the case. >> the state will seek the death

penalty in this case. >> davis would only try darlie for damon's death since victims under age 6 qualify for the death penalty. >> the reason the state tries for only one murder if she is found innocent they can try her for the second. that's a way for the state to load up a double-barrelled shotgun. >> given the media circus in dallas, the trial was moved to the small conservative town of kerrville, texas. >> why that was agreed to is unfathomable to me. >> the second chair on darlie's defense was raised in kerrville. >> doug moulder always says to me, if i ever get murdered, i want you to promise that my murderer will get tried in kerr county. >> on january 6th, 1997, darlie's trial began. her family who had all been called as witnesses were banned

from the court but darin aunt sandy slipped under this radar. >> darlie asked would you come to the trial. i have never been to trial all of my life. all i had seen is perry mason. i did not know what expect. >> i was behind darlie 100%. she had no one in the courtroom other than me she could turn and look to. >> true crime novelist barbara davis who would later publish a book about the case was also in the courtroom. >> he was a dynamic prosecutor and had a way of making you believe what he said is the god's truth. he began to paint darlie as materialistic, a bucsle blond, worried about herself and how she looked and a temptress. and portrayed her as a psychopath. >> on the stand the lieutenant laid out his case for a staged crime scene. jewelry left on the kitchen

counter . the murder weapon suspiciously moved and slashed window screen in the garage. >> burglars and intruders don't usually cut a screen because they know -- i think it is part of staging. >> next the dallas county medical examiner described darlie's wounds as superficial. >> if there was a killer in there, even those bars he would have stabbed darlie multiple times through this chest like those boys an she would be with dead in the state focused on blood spatter from the two boys found on the back of darlie's night shirt. >> our expert was able to demonstrate how that happens if you are over someone stabbing them. he showed you come up and when it comes up is when the cast off happens. obviously that's the manner they have to be stabbed. >> and stabbed and stabbed and stabbed and stabbed and that

remained in that jury's mind. >> for darlie's defense, mulder called two doctors, one who said she was suffering from traumatic amnesia and another who felt her wounds weren't self inflicted. mulder focused on the 911 call from the night of the murders. [ screaming ] >> 911 tape when i heard it i was very convinced she was a hysterical moempl but all of a sudden, darlie was worried about touching a knife. >> don't touch anything. >> i already touched it and picked it up. >> it is all right. it's okay. >> what grieving mother would think of that. she went from being a victim to a murderer of her children. >> finally prosecutors showed the jury a news report shot

eight days after the slayings. ♪ happy birthday to you >> for some this may seem a strange thing to do and out of place and time. ♪ happy birthday dear deafen >> singing happy birthday in a cemetery to a son who was stabbed just a week ago. >> love you, devenn and damon. >> it is one of the strangest things i ever seen. not how you would expect a mother whose boys have been brutally murdered to act, to grin, smack gum and shoot silly string. >> my gut reaction was what the majority of the public was, how could a mother who lost her two sons do something like that? the cameras were there to capture it. i think that sealed her doom. >> during deliberations, the jury asked to see the silly string videotape nine times. after only eight hours, they

returned with their unanimous verdict. guilty. night had fallen when darlie arrived at the texas department of corrections. considered a suicide risk, darlie was dressed in a white paper gown for her walk to death row. >> it didn't some real. like it just couldn't be happening. it seemed like a nightmare. >> do you have any comments? anything you would like to say? 130 yards now... bill's got a very tough lie here... looks like we have some sort of sea monster in the water hazard here. i believe that's a "kraken", bruce. it looks like he's going to go with a nine iron. that may not be enough club... well he's definitely going to lose a stroke on this hole. if you're a golf commentator, you whisper. it's what you do. if you want to save fifteen percent or more

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together, we're building a better california. after darlie rue yea was sent to death row their family ran out of money to pay her attorney douglas mulder. >> we had to sign a paper even after she was convicted for two years if we did any movies or books or whatever we owed him the balance. >> the courts appointed j. steven cooper to lead darlie's appeals. >> as an appellate lawyer you get the transcript of the trial and work from the transcript. it is strictly from what is on the page. in this case what was on the page was erroneous in large

parts and we had a lot of issues on reconstructing the trial transcript. >> darlie's trial transcript had over 30,000 mistakes. >> it was serious. the difference between, you know, up and down. i had never seen that before in 25 years of practicing law. >> when sandra, the court reporter for darlie's trial was questioned she pled the fifth amendment. cooper felt confident the flawed transcript could earn a new trial for darlie, preferably in a droom away from kerrville, this drew concern from prosecutors. >> when this came to light, the state offered her a life sentence and all she had to do is say she killed her children. what did she say? >> no. >> what does that tell you about darlie if. >> she's strong, brave and innocent. >> but just hours before the scheduled hearing, the judge denied darlie's motion.

>> these demonstrators protested a state district judge's decision to cancel a hearing in routier's case. >> we are the voices for darlie. >> the issue wrt court reporter literally changed the court reportering industry. there are many people to this day who are astounded that that trial record did not result in a new trial for darlie routier. darlie's defense now face the uphill battle of appeals. but as cooper dug through evidence he came across a second videotape never shown to the jury, which had the silly string incident was shown in a different light. >> the silly string what was not shown to the jury is a two-hour memorial video that took place before the silly string incident. >> the second video was secretly

filmed by police. attempting to capture any guilty comments made at the boy's memorial. >> the preacher was there. the family was there. prayers, crying, emotion you would expect, all appropriate behavior. her sister brought the silly string. it wasn't darlie's idea. >> this was with my son's birthday, devon's birthday and my sister and her boyfriend went and got silly string. he loved silly string. we did for them what devon didn't get to have and what we knew that he would want and enjoy. they took that and they twisted it and they turned something that was supposed to be beautiful and tried to make it in to something very ugly. >> when doug mulder brought up the tape during the trial, the

detectives who were asked about it pled the fifth. >> we have a lady on death row in texas. who in the course of the litigation, the only three people who took the fifth amendment were the two lead detectives and the court reporter. >> the question for cooper was why hadn't mulder shown the second videotape to the jury. >> i don't know why they didn't show the tape. he said put it in if you want it but they never put that portion of the tape in. >> i think it was a huge mistake not to show the jury this memorial service. i think it would effectively nullified any impact the silly string video had. >> as he continued to build darlie's appeal, cooper was confronted with another question, why had mulder never raised darlie's husband darin as a possible suspect. >> let's be practical about this. there are two adults in this

house and two dead children and darlie is sliced and cut and beat severely. well, the most logical culprit of that is not if not an intruder would be the husband or darin. >> in addition to defending darlie, doug mulder had represented darin in his gag order case. >> what we have alleged in several appellate pleadings that mr. mulder was suffer issing from conflict of interest. at the time he represented darlie he had a continuing duty to protect darin. >> i was in the room when mulder and darin had that conversation. darin had said, you know, well, i don't want them going after me because i didn't do anything. and mulder said, well, you didn't do anything. i don't see any reason to go after you. and that was that. >> it would be very difficult to point a finger at darin when the person on trial says my husband is not involved. >> at that time, that was just

absurd to me. it was -- i didn't want to hear anything like that. >> what you didn't really hear about at the time is the life insurance on darlie, of which darin was the beneficiary. it was 250,000. this insurance policy raised questions, even with one of darin's own family members. >> this is my nephew. i don't know if darin was involved. i know that that is a big question. everybody has their answer to that. in my heart i say no. in my head i have a few questions. >> to answer those questions, sandy contacted multimillionaire brian pardo, something of an armchair detective he supports the death penalty but funds investigations for those who he thinks is innocent.

>> i thought it was important to exclude darin and the only way he would be eliminated as a suspect is to pass a polygraph because that's what police like to do. >> the results of pardo's investigation were about to uncover dark secrets that darin had kept hidden for years. with my moderate to severe ulcerative colitis, the possibility of a flare was almost always on my mind. thinking about what to avoid, where to go... and how to deal with my uc. to me, that was normal. until i talked to my doctor. she told me that humira helps people like me get uc under control and keep it under control when certain medications haven't worked well enough. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened; as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. before treatment, get tested for tb. tell your doctor if you've been to areas where

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darlie routier had been on death row for 15 months when brian pardo began to raise questions about her husband darin. darin adamantly denied any involvement in the murders of his sons and to prove it, he submitted to a polygraph test. >> the polygraph examiner was with the police department. he came around the other side of the table and sat down and he said, darin, you have failed this examination. it looks to me like you perpetrated this crime. >> you were involved in the murders. >> i was not. >> in what way? >> in what way. you helped plan it and you were there to carry it out. >> no, i did not. >> when brian pardo pointed a

finger at brian the family went ballistic. darlie wrote me a letter scene said you have to think of what you are doing. i have to admit i said you need to think of what you are doing. >> the polygraph wasn't the only revelation about darin. pardo hired a private investigator who discovered before the murders, darin suggested hiring someone to rob his house so he could collect insurance money. >> he came up with a screwball scheme. he had done one insurance scam with a car. he got the money for the car. >> in a signed affidavit, darin admitted to the car scam and his plot for a home robbery. >> i've known darin since he was 15 years old. possibly you could get me to believe that he set it up for a robbery because he talked about

that. he would never hurt his children or hurt darlie, never. i will never believe that. >> but the results of pardo's investigation differed. >> darlie had no motive and darin had motive. i met with darlie and told her we were very persuaded that darin was a participant in this act. >> when darlie was told some of the facts regarding darin, she totally lost it for the first time in her mind she thought maybe darin was involved in it. >> i felt betrayed. here's the person that i had been with since high school, that i had three children with, and a good marriage, so i thought. and whether or not that had anything to do with this or not,

to know that had been plotted behind my back hurt. hurt. >> did it make you think that maybe he could have been behind this? >> it made me have a lot of questions. >> while any case against darin would have been purely circumstantial, that didn't explain why doug mulder hadn't fended off some of the circumstantial evidence against darlie who was facing death row. >> the biggest failure was the failure to use forensic testing. >> i think it was probably the strongest forensic evidence that the state had. >> the state contended that fibers found on a bread knife in the kitchen matched the slashed window screen. >> they didn't do any testing to

exclude other sources from that particular fiber or even to pin it down to the screen and only the screen. >> the bread knife had been dusted for fingerprints with a brush that raised questions for cooper. >> four of the brushes had the same chemical consistency in appearance as this one fiber that was found on the bread knife. >> it's typical in a criminal case that the defense is not satisfied with the state's case. so certainly you would have heard from that evidence. >> where are they? why aren't they speaking out? >> the d.a. said ladies and gentlemen of the jury, any witnesses to contradict and all we have is what our experts said. >> they learned about three

fingerprints at the crime scene that police marked as unidentified but to match them to a potential intruder they had to rule out the family and police failed to get prints from deafen and damon's bodies. that left darlie and her family with only one emotional choice. >> we didn't have anything. had a specialist come in to take their fingerprints because they footprinted them but didn't fingerprint them. >> just couldn't believe this nightmare had gotten to that point. >> darlie hoped the boys' prints would provide evidence of what she claimed all along. concrete proof of an intruder. if you have moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. isn't it time to let the real you shine through? introducing otezla, apremilast. otezla is not an injection, or a cream. it's a pill that treats plaque psoriasis differently.

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three years after darlie was sentenced to death. >> the boys were buried together holding hands. so where the hands were together, it destroyed the fingerprints. >> the only other option to identify the fingerprints was

dna but cooper's request for testing was denied by the courts. >> dna would help but there are other aspects of the case that i think are very helpful to us so we're not just limited to the dna. >> cooper thought the prosecution's time line of events also had flaw sfls the time line drawn by the state it was remarkable they were with able to sell it. because of the long time she was on the phone with 911. >> darlie's call to 911 lasted five minutes and 44 seconds. damon could have only lived for eight or nine minutes after those wounds were inflicted according to courtroom testimony. so she was on the phone with 911 for five minutes and 44 seconds se had a lot to do real fast. >> the biggest thing was the discovery of a bloody sock,

found in an ally 75 yards away from the routier home. >> the sock is the most important piece of evidence in the case. >> one of the things that had to happen after the boys were stabbed is the blood on the sock. both boys blood was found on the sock. >> they hasn't figured out what to do with that sock. not but a couple of minutes for her to stab and kill the children and cut the screen, get this sock and run it down the ally in the dark through a gate that doesn't really work very well, come back and then the state claims she stood at the kitchen sink and injured herself, staged the crime scene. it really defies common sense to believe all of that could have been done in that time frame. >> during closing arguments, greg davis asked the jury what loving mother sleeps through the murder of her two children and then he told the jury the last thing each of these two children

saw was their killer. >> everything pointed to darlie, nothing pointed to anyone else. i had a nand convincing a lot of people she did this. sold 200,000 books. >> barbara davis' book had been out a year when she received a call from a deep throat source in the district attorney's office and that source said you need to meet with me. there are some things you need to see. within 20 minutes i had tears running down my cheeks. i had written a book, based on my reputation and integrity saying this woman had killed her children. i was staring at facts that she did not. creatures take flight, soaring away from home towards the promise of a better existence. but these birds are suffering. because this better place turned out to have a less reliable cell phone network, and the videos on their little bird phones kept buffering. birds hate that.

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>> after the publication of the scathing book, a secret source within the d.a.'s office showed her evidence that she had never seen. >> when i saw the photographs. this was a small pded pd, never handled a murder case like this. and the pictures were taken out of sequence. major evidence was picked up and moved around because i saw them here in one picture and here in another. contradicting any testimony of staging. i learned an hour before the

silly string happened there is video showing the prayer vigil before the celebration. but the jury never saw the appropriate celebration of the boys' lives. her throat was cut her left hand would have had to do it. she had bruises up and down her arm. picture began to form in my mind. the horror of the injures she had. it would have been a different outcome but they didn't look at the evidence. the last thing they did is play the silly string tape and sanford said i don't think she is guilty and now do you think she is guilty. and torn out charlie sanford said okay. >> he was a jury at darlie's trial. >> when you do something and it is right, after a while you

settle. it never would leave me alone. >> charlie sanford was shocked to learn about the surveillance tape and the photos of darlie's extensive wounds. >> there's a lot of evidence that we in the jury never did see. if i would have seen those pictures before, it would have made a lot of difference in what i thought. >> he says he wasn't shown all of the evidence and the evidence he wasn't shown was actually evidence he was shown. >> when the prosecution gets on their high horse and said the pictures were right there, sure were, with thousands of other things and they made sure they were mixed in and the jury was not going to sift through those pictures. >> have any of the other jurors had a change of heart in. >> yes , but they don't want to -- they don't want to do this. they seen me coming down the aisle at wal-mart, they take off

the other way. >> in june of 2008, steven cooper finally got the break he was looking for when the texas court of criminal appeals granted dna testing. >> it is good news. we have been fighting for it five, six years. trying to get proof of male dna in the house that is connected to the crime scene. the infamous 85-j. >> if dna shows there was an intruder that night how can darlie ever be repaid for all of the years of her life that have been spent in a 9x6 cell on death row? how can she be repaid for the years she's lost with her sole surviving son? >> darlie's son drake is now 19 years old. he has never before given an

interview. >> i usually won't talk about it. a lot of people kind of knew that drake routier, his mom is on death row. it is part of my life. something i have had to live with for 19 years. >> he's been coming up here since he was pretty little, little baby. so this is all he really remembers. >> jake lives with his father darin in lubbock, texas. darlie and darin were divorced in 2011. >> darin has done a good job of raising drake. he didn't get the hugs that a mom gives. >> we don't have contact. so i never got to hold or hug him since i have been in this place. >> there's a glass in between us. can't do anything about it. >> in the summer of 2013, drake was forced to deliver devastating news to darlie. >> i was diagnosed with cancer a year ago june 26th.

>> drake was diagnosed with acute lympho it issic leukemia. >> i was handed a cell phone in the hospital bed and heard her voice and said mom, i have cancer. it was probably one of the hardest things i have ever done in my life. >> not being able to hold him, that was extremely hard. i didn't want to break apart from him. i wanted to be strong. >> drake's cancer still requires monthly chemotherapy, but his prospects for remission are positive. >> his body is healing. he's -- he helps to keep me fighting for sure. >> darlie, will you admit to having killed the boys? >> i'm innocent. >> even today i can't believe that i have a daughter who's innocent on death row. it's just, it changes your whole

life. that's what you think about when you wake up, that's what you think about when you go to bed. darlie's case is on hold pending dna testing. cooper believes the results, specifically those of the bloody fingerprint will finally prove there was an intruder at the home on the night of the murders. >> if we get it reversed, they have to try or dismiss it with all of the evidence that's been established over time. they are not going to retry this case in my opinion. well-prepared attorneys with a good strategy will eat the prosecution alive. >> the time is not on darlie's side. >> in texas, if you have been sentenced to death you have three appeals. darlie's lost her direct state appeal and lost the writ appeal from the state. if her federal appeals are deny than the trial judge from that court will set a date of execution. >> i fully expect her to be put

to death. at that time we can say justice was done in this case and it is now closed. >> this must be really hard for you. what would you say to your mom. >> i love you. and i always will. i hope you get out soon. that's it. >> darlie is unique. the fact she maintained her innocence from day one with. she was convicted partially because of susan smith and what happened there. it became apparent because of the publicity that mothers kill their children. >> it created a perfect storm. that perfect storm swept with up a 26-year-old housewife and mother with no prior criminal history and landed her on death row. >> i'm at peace. i'm at peace. i know i didn't do this. it gives me that peace inside.

i can look people in the eye. i have done nothing but tell the truth. my innocent blood will be on their hands and they will have to answer for that one day. may not be here, but they will may not be here, but they will have to answer for it. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com on this episode of death row stories, young newlyweds are brutally murdered. >> the two had been suspects all along. >> they were clearly capable of committing murder. >> but with a man sentenced to death -- >> i've done some bad things in my life, but i've never done anything like this. >> and his own family doubting his innocence. one cop fights to reopen the case. >>ou